


Alternate Endings

by orphan_account



Series: Call it a Sleep Deprived Oneshot [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Gen, I don't even know how I managed to write this I mean, I don't know what I'm doing, I don't want to spoil it but seriously, Parallel Universes, Seriously sleep deprived oneshot, So many AUs, so many Barrys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 23:46:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7013461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A portal opens up in Starling City, dragging in Barry Allens from alternate universes and dumping them on Earth 1. Will Team Arrow be able to cope with their base being overridden by Barrys from all of the most common AUs that AO3 has to offer?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In The Beginning...

**Author's Note:**

> I realised that I hadn’t updated in a while, mostly because lately I’ve been lacking both the time and the imagination to do so. I wrote most of this a few weeks after my last fic and lost my motivation to finish so the A/N will be no doubt be outdated as hell. It’s hardly my best but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!
> 
> So I was talking to a friend about Barry from Earth 2 and what if he was just, like, a regular guy or maybe he still had super speed but saw all the crap that that universe’s Flash was going through and decided the superhero business wasn’t for him. Hence…whatever this is. I’ll be using a number of different relatively common AUs but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory. Leave a kudos if you enjoyed and I’d love it if you took the time to comment! Feel free to leave a prompt and I’ll see what I can do with it.  
> P.S. I left a list of all of the Barrys and the universe they came from at the bottom. You’ll see what I mean pretty soon.

Barry streaked into the room in his Flash suit, the mask down and another Barry by his side. This one was wearing some sort of a dark blue costume with a hood pulled down low. An irritated expression flitted across his face but was gone as quickly as it came.  
Diggle groaned. “You really need to stop this whole time travel thing, man.”  
“Sorry, Dig. Not time travel this time. Parallel universe, or more specifically, parallel me,” Barry apologised. “Meet Barry from…What world did we assign you?”  
“Earth Four,” he said gruffly.  
“Right, Earth Four. Long story short, a portal kind of opened up and other versions of me have been popping up. I’d run him over to Central City but the portal is here in Starling so…” he trailed off.  
“He can stay here for a while,” Felicity said before Oliver could refuse.  
“Great! I’ve gotta find my double from Earth Three, he made a run for it after the Earth Five guy showed up,” Barry said hurriedly before running out.  
The ‘Earth Four Barry’ didn’t say a word or make to sit down. He surveyed the room carefully for a moment, taking particular interest in the weapons display.  
“So…Parallel universes,” Felicity said conversationally. “Those are a thing now?”  
He hummed in confirmation, eyes flickering briefly between her and Oliver.  
“So they tell me,” he said eventually, his voice seemingly deeper than the Barry they knew. “You are…allies of myself in this world?”  
“We help each other out on occasion,” Diggle assured him and the alternate Barry seemed to relax a little. He fiddled with something on his wrist for a moment, frowning in concern.  
A moment later the real Barry rushed back into the room with another Barry by his side.  
“Oh, come on!” the other Barry complained. He was dressed in a simple hoodie and jeans.  
“Hey, this is my universe and that’s my face you’re wearing. If you want to steal things in your own world, then that’s your own problem. We’re working on getting you home but just…behave!” the real Barry stressed.  
“Fine,” thief-Barry grumbled, speeding into a free chair. The Earth Four Barry seemed temporarily interested before he continued working on the device on his wrist. A blade sprang free and he smiled, wiping off the partially dried blood with his sleeve.  
“No killing anybody!” real-Barry said sternly.  
“We don’t kill meaninglessly,” the Barry with the knife said with a shrug. He flicked his wrist and the blade slid out of sight.  
“I mean it, I saw what you did to that guy you came through with.”  
“He was an enemy of the Brotherhood. I’m an assassin, I killed my target. It’s what I do,” World Four Barry said with a shrug.  
“Wait, I’m an assassin in another world? Cool,” thief-Barry said with a smirk. Real-Barry shook his head.  
“Just…Stay here, I have to go track down the me…us from Earth Five.”  
Then real-Barry was gone again.  
Oliver eyed assassin-Barry warily but the man seemed more interested in the Barry from Earth Three who was examining a paper weight with interest.  
“No stealing,” assassin-Barry reminded thief-Barry. The speedster stuck out his tongue but obediently set the object back on the table.  
“You’re no fun.”  
Assassin-Barry rolled his eyes and pulled a handgun out of his belt. It also appeared to be splattered with blood, much to assassin-Barry’s dismay.  
“Put that back,” he said without even looking up. Felicity glanced back at thief-Barry who reluctantly pulled an arrowhead out of his pocket and placed it on the table.  
Real-Barry entered again with another Barry in tow.  
“Guys, meet Earth Five Barry,” he said sounding exhausted. This Barry seemed a little paler than what would be considered normal but other than that appeared fairly ordinary.  
“How long will this take?” he asked impatiently.  
“We don’t know just yet but my team are working on it, I swear,” real-Barry assured them. Thief-Barry sighed dramatically, spinning in his chair. That was when real-Barry noticed the gun in assassin-Barry’s hand.  
“Hey! What did I say about not killing people?” he demanded.  
“The blood is old…ish,” assassin-Barry said dismissively. “It needs cleaned.  
“Well you can do that when you get home,” real-Barry insisted. “Put it away before you freak somebody out.”  
“I have no issue with mortal weapons,” Earth Five Barry offered.  
“What do you mean by ‘mortal weapons’?” Oliver asked half-heartedly. The newest Barry grinned, showing off his canines that ended in unnatural points.  
“Wait, you’re a vampire?” Felicity asked quickly, her hands subconsciously drifting towards her neck.  
“I fed before I came here, you have nothing to fear,” vampire-Barry said reassuringly.  
“Why can’t you have normal alternate doubles?” Diggle asked with a sigh.  
“If it’s any constellation, I do not have the speed that my alternate selves seem to,” assassin-Barry offered.  
“You’re apparently some knife wielding hitman so no, you don’t come under the ‘normal’ category,” Diggle said flatly.  
“Assassin,” he corrected. “And it is a traditional weapon still used by many in the Brotherhood.”  
“So you’re part of some assassin cult. That’s so much better,” the bodyguard snorted.  
“Hey, don’t judge my lifestyle choices,” thief-Barry said with a frown.  
“You do not have to defend me,” assassin-Barry said with an amused smile.  
“Yeah but we’re practically bros and we’re both stuck in an alternate universe for an indefinite amount of time,” thief-Barry pointed out.  
“Look, Cisco picked up another reading so I’ve got to run. Earth Three Me, don’t steal anything. Earth Four Me, don’t kill anybody. Earth Five Me…Just try to stay out of the sun,” he said quickly before disappearing in a streak of red and yellow.  
“Great, more company,” thief-Barry said, his voice oozing with sarcasm.  
“How many of us do you suppose will emerge?” vampire-Barry asked as he eyed the hanging lights distastefully.  
“I don’t think any of us can answer that question,” assassin-Barry said as he examined a brownish stain on his shirt.  
“Look,” Barry’s voice said from by the door. All eyes turned the new arrival. “I don’t know who you are but I have a case I need to…”  
His voice faltered when he caught sight of the three identical faces staring back at him.  
“But I…That’s not possible I-” he stuttered as real-Barry pulled back his mask.  
“A wormhole has been pulling Barry Allen’s from alternate realities into this world. We’re working on a way to send you all back,” he said helpfully.  
“I-I think I need to sit down,” he said weakly. Thief-Barry super-speeded over to him, placing a chair right behind him. The man stumbled backwards in surprise and fell into it.  
“You’re welcome!” thief-Barry said gleefully.  
“I’m dreaming. This case has driven me insane,” he muttered.  
“You a cop?” assassin-Barry asked with vague interest. The man nodded and vampire-Barry looked disappointed.  
xxx  
It went on for a little over an hour. Barry disappeared every few minutes, returned with another double. They gave a brief summary of the whole situation which generally ended in varied results. The room was more than a little crowded and Felicity was rapidly losing track of who was who.  
Earth Nine Barry was probably the most distinctive. Most of the doubles called him ‘crazy-Barry’ but he didn’t seem to mind. He was still in his straightjacket but he never looked especially bothered by this fact and nobody offered to take it off of him. Mostly he just sat in the back corner, gently rocking back and forth while talking animatedly to someone they couldn’t see.  
Then there was prison-Barry. He was still wearing his orange jumpsuit but thief-Barry had picked the lock on his handcuffs. Something about the scene had apparently inspired an idea in cop-Barry’s head and he was quite happily conversing with the Barry from Earth Eleven (the coffee shop owner), content in the knowledge that his supposed dream had helped him crack his case.  
Pirate-Barry was also quite distinctive, his long brown jacket and shaggy hair separating him from the rest but he seemed to be getting along quite well with assassin-Barry.  
Demon-Barry appeared perfectly ordinary but he was dressed entirely in black, just like vampire-Barry but the demon was less pale. The pair had gotten along quite well, bonding over the fact that they were both supernatural creatures of the night. Hunter-Barry had almost murdered them both but assassin-Barry had reminded them that they were all essentially the same person so they should tolerate each other until they could all make it home. Eventually they settled for glaring at each other from opposite sides of the room.  
The real-Barry brought back a double dressed in rags that smelled like decomposition, splattered with brown stains that looked suspiciously like dried blood. Turns out in his world he was trying to survive the zombie apocalypse so he’d bonded with hunter-Barry over their hatred of the undead.  
Crazy-Barry had then announced that, in the asylum, the man in the room next door was actually a werewolf. Hunter-Barry had listened with interest before shaking his head and saying that it sounded more like a sprite, insisting that it wasn’t uncommon for humans to think they were insane.  
After that came warlock-Barry. He didn’t have a pointy hat but a small tabby cat was sleeping contently in his arms. He scratched it behind the ears absently as he joined the ‘supernatural side’. The demon winked at the hunter, amused by man’s obvious discomfort at being outnumbered. Survivor-Barry patted his shoulder reassuringly.  
Things only got worse when real-Barry showed up, seemingly alone but all of the Barrys in the room looked up with interest. Apparently there was a ‘ghost-Barry’ that none of the members of Team Arrow could see but all of Barrys alternates could see him just fine.  
For a moment the tension between the hunter and the demon built but after what, to Felicity, seemed like a one sided conversation the ghost instead chose to stand quietly in the darkest corner he could find. Crazy-Barry had gotten to his feet with the help of prison-Barry (those straightjackets really didn’t make things easy). He’d developed an apparent fascination with his deceased alternate self. When the ghost started crying he tried to cheer him up by telling him a story about the time he’d discovered the asylum he lived in was actually haunted. Ghost-Barry had actually quietened a little as he listened to the rather confusing tale.  
“Alright, good news guys. The portal is stable, ghost-me should be the last us to fall through,” real-Barry said. Some of the Barrys cheered. Ghost-Barry just gave a weak smile and assassin-Barry simply nodded his approval but they all seemed to be quite pleased.  
“So are we going home now?” Cop-Barry asked hopefully.  
“My friend Cisco says they think they’ve figured it out. They’re just working on making sure you all get back to the right realities,” real-Barry assured them. Survivor-Barry looked terrified but Hunter-Barry just wrapped an arm around his shoulders.  
“Don’t worry, bro. You can come to my world with me, right Earth One Barry?” he asked expectantly. Real-Barry hesitated for a moment but when he caught sight of survivor-Barry’s expression he caved.  
“Sure, shouldn’t be an issue.”  
Another batch of cheering went out.  
“How long?” assassin-Barry asked.  
“Cisco’s not exactly sure but it won’t be too long now,” real-Barry said. Assassin-Barry seemed satisfied by the answer.  
“Can ghost-Barry come with me?” crazy-Barry asked hopefully, bouncing on the balls of his feet.  
“Uh…” Barry hesitated.  
“No one has seen me since I died,” ghost-Barry offered. “It seems to be the same in this universe. I see no reason why the same rules would not apply in his universe and the people around him already think he talks to himself.”  
“Alright, fine. Ghost-Barry gets to go to the asylum. Anybody else want to switch universes while we’re on the subject?” real-Barry asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. Under normal circumstances he’d probably refuse but these people were all…Him. They’d just been dealt different hands to play in their universes.  
Prison-Barry raised his hand and thief-Barry gave him a high five.  
“Right, you getting this Cisco?” real-Barry asked. He paused as he listened to the chatter on the other end of the line. “No, that’s the me from Earth Thirteen. Yeah, he’s headed to Earth Twelve. Then Fifteen is going to Earth Nine and Eight is going back with Three. Anyone else want to change realities?”  
There was a brief silence before Coffee-Barry spoke up.  
“Uh…My parents died in a car crash a few years back and they were really the last family I had left. I don’t have any real friends back home, I’m in serious debt. All I’ve got is my coffee shop which it looks like I’m going to lose by the end of the month. I’ve already been evicted from my apartment,” he trailed off.  
“You can come home with me,” warlock-Barry offered. “I mean, the only real family I have is my familiar but I’ve got a cabin on the outskirts of a village where they leave me be to do my magic in peace but I could say you’re my brother or my cousin or something. You could even help me with some of my spells if you want.”  
“Sounds like a better life than the one I’ve got,” coffee-Barry said immediately. “I’m in.”  
“So, that’s Earth Eleven to Fourteen,” real-Barry confirmed. Diggle shook his head in disbelief.  
“This doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Oliver put in.  
“Why not? Jay’s been living here for a while now and so far there haven’t been any Earth destroying black holes or glitches in the Matrix,” real-Barry said with a shrug.  
“Who’s Jay?” Felicity asked.  
“He’s the Flash from Earth Two,” real-Barry supplied and paused for a moment. “Did no one tell you guys about the whole Earth Two thing?”  
“No,” Diggle replied.  
“Oh…Well Zoom is from another universe and he’s been sending Metas from Earth Two to kill me…One of them was actually my ex-girlfriend. She tried to kill my real ex-girlfriend and steal her identity,” he supplied, shaking his head. “Anyway, Cisco and Caitlin have almost finished making a device that should open a portal to your own universes. Problem is, we have to go to them because it’s too big for them to take it on the train.”  
“Well I’ve got speed,” thief-Barry said. “I’m good.”  
“I’m not,” cop-Barry muttered.  
“While I am faster than your average mortal, my speed is not equal to yours,” vampire-Barry informed them.  
“I can only travel to places I know, this ‘Star Labs’ you spoke of is unfamiliar to me,” demon-Barry said vaguely.  
“Alright, alright. We’ll all just take the train then,” real-Barry said.  
“Are you crazy? You want… thirteen identical versions of you, plus an invisible one to all try and take the train?” Felicity asked incredulously.  
“I doubt that will end well,” coffee-Barry commented, sending crazy-Barry a sideways glance.  
“He’s probably right,” crazy-Barry told ghost-Barry happily.  
“We could rent a car,” warlock-Barry suggested. The cat in his arms squirmed to get into a more comfortable position.  
In the end, they rented a moving van. Diggle decided it would be best if he drove, Felicity took the seat up front and Oliver drove alongside on his motorcycle while all of the Barrys crammed into the back. Pirate-Barry even gave vampire-Barry his coat to cover himself when they stepped into the sun.  
Crazy-Barry started singing ‘road trip songs’ almost as soon as they started driving and a few miles down the line, real-Barry was seriously considering throwing himself out of the van and running alongside. In the end, hunter-Barry had to forcibly prevent demon-Barry from removing crazy-Barry’s tongue and crazy-Barry quietened down, humming ‘wheels on the bus’ quietly to himself.  
The trip took almost eleven hours in total. They stopped for gas a handful of times and once for a takeaway order at Big Belly Burger.  
Real-Barry counted no less than thirty seven insults, four attempted assaults, twelve death threats, two panic attacks and one match of ‘did not, did too’ that went on for almost an hour and a half. It only ended because demon-Barry threatened to open the doors and press their faces against the road until the friction ripped them both to shreds. The two had called it a tie.  
When they finally came to a stop, even assassin-Barry gave a half-hearted cheer. By this point it was mostly dark out, much to vampire-Barry’s relief.  
“Whoa, you said this place was big but…Whoa,” prison-Barry said, sounding impressed. “And you own this whole building?”  
“Someone left it to me in their will,” real-Barry muttered as they entered the cortex. Cisco and Caitlin had known what to expect but they still gaped at the fourteen Barrys they could actually see. Ghost-Barry gave them both a sad look before he drifted over to the medical bay in the back, looking at the equipment with interest.  
“Alright guys, nobody wander off because trust me. You will get lost,” real-Barry warned them.  
“You got it, chief,” thief-Barry piped up as he sat down on a desk.  
“I need a drink,” cop-Barry said, rubbing his eyes.  
“Dr Pepper please!” crazy-Barry giggled, trailing after ghost-Barry.  
“You know what? I’ll get it,” coffee-Barry said. “I saw the kitchen on our way in. Anybody else want anything?”  
“I would kill for a cup of coffee right now,” prison-Barry admitted.  
“I second that,” hunter-Barry called. “I take it black.”  
“I haven’t had coffee in a long time,” pirate-Barry said wistfully. “With sugar if you have any.”  
“Just water for me thanks,” warlock-Barry put in.  
“Tea,” assassin-Barry requested from where he appeared to be examining the doors. “Milk, no sugar.”  
“I haven’t had a coke in about three years,” survivor-Barry admitted.  
“I’ll have one too if you’ve got,” thief-Barry put in.  
“I don’t require sustenance,” demon-Barry said as he examined his fingernails.  
“And I doubt you have anything I would even consider ingesting,” vampire-Barry said, his lip curling in distaste.  
Real-Barry blurred out of the room and returned with a blood bag. He tossed it to vampire-Barry who caught it with ease and eyed it warily.  
“We keep a stock, I have a habit of getting myself mortally wounded. It’s not all that fresh but-”  
“It’ll do,” vampire-Barry replied.  
“Alright, I’ll go get your drinks,” coffee-Barry said, looking more than a little sickened.  
“I’ll go with you,” cop-Barry said. “You seem like the only remotely normal one around here.  
The various Barrys spread out, making themselves comfortable in the cortex and splitting off into their previous splinter groups. The warlock left to go help with the drinks a few minutes later, probably interested in getting to know his future roommate or something.  
“Dude this is so cool,” Cisco exclaimed.  
“Not the word I’d use,” real-Barry said as he took a seat. “How’s the device coming along?”  
“Great, we’re just working on calibrations then it should be good for testing. A few days and we should-”  
“Days?!”  
“Well, we have to make sure they’re going back to the right worlds. It’s a complicated process,” Cisco argued.  
“Where are they going to stay?” real-Barry stressed.  
“We have rooms,” Caitlin pointed out. “I mean, there used to be hundreds of people working here and we cleared out all of their offices. We can make do.”  
“Alright…Just, try to finish it as quickly as possible,” real-Barry begged. There was a crash and he spun around to find crazy-Barry looking guilty.  
“Earth Nine knocked over a machine!” thief-Barry yelled. Real-Barry pinched the bridge of his nose.  
This was going to be a long couple of days.


	2. The Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a little piece explaining what happened to all of the Barrys after they went back to both their own worlds and the worlds they chose to return to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anybody is confused about anybody then just comment. I wrote the bit about Crazy-Barry when I was more asleep than awake. I honestly barely remember writing it but left it in because, hey, it does sound like it's from a crazy person's perspective, not really sure what that says about me.

Earth Three: Thief-Barry

Earth Four: Assassin-Barry

Earth Five: Vampire-Barry

Earth Six: Cop-Barry

Earth Seven: Pirate-Barry

Earth Eight: Prison-Barry

Earth Nine: Crazy-Barry

Earth Ten: Demon-Barry

Earth Eleven: Coffee-Barry

Earth Twelve: Hunter-Barry

Earth Thirteen: Survivor-Barry

Earth Fourteen: Warlock-Barry

Earth Fifteen: Ghost-Barry

Epilogue:

In the end, after an extended intermission filled insults, death threats and more than a few incidents, everybody made it to the worlds of their choosing.

Prison-Barry and thief-Barry proved to be one hell of a team and, though thief-Barry still regularly broke the law, prison-Barry was able to talk him down from doing anything too risky and it turned out that spending so much time around a vigilante rubbed off on him a bit. He may not have become a full time hero but more and more frequently muggers would vanish, stolen items back in the hands of the victims and armed robberies had become practically none existent in the Central City of Earth 3 due to the mysterious blur that had been sighted on multiple occasions, stopping crime around the city…and so what if most of the criminals found their wallets empty when they suddenly appeared outside of police stations?

Assassin-Barry returned to his world alone, something he regretted at times, but he was effected by the trip just the same. His mind always seemed to return to the underground den and the man with the bow and arrow. A vigilante, seemingly more violent than his alternate self but a vigilante all the same. The first Barry was what he’d always imagined heroes to be. The ones he’d seen in movies and TV shows as a child…But this archer, he was a hero as well. One that seemed prepared to kill if his arsenal was any indication. The assassin had always known that he wasn’t cut out for being a hero, a _real_ hero. However, if this archer could create his own definition of the word, why shouldn’t he?

He started his career as a vigilante with violence and bloodshed, targeting only the worst that humanity had to offer. It wasn’t until he started to broaden his horizon that he realised some of the people he’d executed were guilty of crimes no worse than some he himself had committed. It was this that led him to take on a less ruthless approach. He still killed on occasion but only as a last resort. He was a wanted felon, a disgrace to the brotherhood he’d once called his family but he couldn’t bring himself to care because for the first time in his life, he knew he was doing the right thing.

Vampire-Barry would tell you that he was completely unaffected by the experience. That it didn’t remind him that humans have lives too, or that they’re really not that different from him. And if he’d started feeding from blood bags instead of people? Well that was just a coincidence. Hunting down humans on a daily basis just became too much hassle.

Cop-Barry did his best to convince himself that the whole thing was just some crazy dream. It wasn’t that difficult really, considering that the alternative was that he’d _actually_ been dragged into a wormhole and then been confronted by fourteen doubles of himself. He considered himself open minded but I think you’ll agree that that’s taking things a little too far. Still, his dream had helped him crack his newest case which was a plus. With that nut job cannibal behind bars and that promotion he’d been after all but guaranteed, he couldn’t help but be a little grateful towards the eccentric characters his subconscious had managed to put together.

Pirate-Barry found himself back on his ship and a strange mixture of feelings assaulted him. Regret, relief, confusion, fear. Mostly he felt relief. It was strange, really. Seeing so many alternates of himself (and he didn't doubt for a second that what he'd experienced was real, the strange green arrow head he'd stolen from the underground room served as proof enough in his mind) had come as a reassurance in a funny sort of way. He knew he wasn't a good person. He was a thief and a murderer though he avoided killing whenever he could. But this...this proved that though he wasn't a _good_ person and though he may have done a lot of bad things, there was still hope that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't a _bad_ person.

Prison-Barry genuinely enjoyed life on Earth 3 and not just because there he could live as a free man, but because there he felt like he was making a difference. Even if he was just influencing thief-Barry in small ways, his alternate self was slowly beginning to change…although he never really said it, prison-Barry knew that thief-Barry sometimes considered his speed a curse more than a gift. Right at the point when he thought he might be turning his life around, when he thought his kleptomania might be getting better, everything changed and suddenly the temptation was overwhelming what with everyone appearing to stand still whenever the urge to steal something hit. At first he tried to pretend everything was just the same but Iris knew. He wasn't entirely sure how but she knew and he lost her because of it. 

Prison-Barry knew that he'd had his chance with the Iris on his Earth and despite how it ended, despite the fact that he'd wound up in a cell because her ex-boyfriend got away with her murder and managed to pin it on him instead, he didn't regret a single second he'd spent with her. He'd be damned if he didn't do everything he could to make sure his alternate self got a shot at a happy ending. 

Crazy-Barry didn't particularly mind being back in the asylum now that he had a friend to keep him company. Flower girl was nice but she wasn't there all of the time. She was only there at that _specific_ time. The time when they ate and then when they did other things as well...but flower girl was never there when they told him to sleep. The other him was! It was nice 'cause he didn't sleep so crazy-Barry didn't have to worry about the others getting inside his cell and killing him while he slept. The...the doctors? No, the doctors that weren't doctors, the ones who always asked him funny questions and wrote things down, they always asked who 'the others' were which crazy-Barry thought was an odd thing to ask. And now he had his other him! The invisible one that could walk through walls! Well, most of his friends were invisible. That part wasn't unusual. Only flower girl wasn't invisible...she said she was sometimes but Barry could always still see her. Last time she was invisible, she tried to go behind the guards and open the doors that they weren't allowed to open. She didn't stay invisible for very long because the guards saw her and took her away. She hadn't been in the...the eating place in a while. He wasn't entirely sure how long it had been because his brain got muddled whenever he slept and then he couldn't remember how many sleeps he'd been asleep for. He didn't like that it made things muddled but he couldn't _not_ sleep. He wasn't really sure why he couldn't not sleep. He knew he'd tried once and then...and then someone got mad and told him that he always had to sleep, every night. He didn't know who'd told him, but then again he never remembered anybody.

Except for...for flower girl. He didn't remember her other name, the one she told him but she said that she didn't mind because sometimes she forgot her name too! He always found this funny because she could remember his name. He was Barry. Sometimes she forgot a lot of things, like how old she was and what she looked like and even where she was while she was there! Sometimes she said they'd be sitting in clouds. Other times everything would be dark and she'd get really upset. Barry was pretty sure that she'd like the other him.

Even if he wasn't real to her the same way he wasn't real to the doctors that weren't doctors. 

Demon-Barry returned to his own world and fell back into his life as if nothing had happened. After all, he wouldn't be much of a demon if he let an experience like that get to him...and so what if he felt a little more inclined to show mercy when the mood struck him? His little trip didn't have anything to do with his sudden change of heart. 

Coffee-Barry quickly decided that changing Earths was the best decision he'd ever made. Even if he occasionally felt like a coward because he'd been handed an easy way out that didn't include...you know, taking the _ultimate_ way out. All of the debt, the bad decisions...the things he'd been too afraid to say when he had the chance. That was all behind now. He had a second chance at life. Only this time, he'd played through the tutorial a few times first. 

Hunter-Barry found life hadn't changed _that_ much. He was still hunting down things that went bump in the night while avoiding law enforcement like it was the plague. Only now he had someone doing it alongside him again. Sure, it was harder to go unnoticed when you were walking beside someone who looked exactly like you but when they styled their hair differently and wore sunglasses they could usually get away with it. And the best part was, he didn't feel guilty for pulling him into the ugly, ugly world he'd been thrown into headfirst so many years ago. The Barry from Earth Thirteen came from a much darker world than this.                           

Survivor-Barry took a while to adjust to the fact that safety existed again. That cities weren't something to be avoided at all costs and crowds were no longer a death sentence. In many ways, he was thankful that the life he was living now wasn't completely ordinary. For the sake of his sanity if nothing else, it was easy to feel crazy for seeing danger in the smallest of things...But Hunter-Barry was like that too. He saw danger in the ordinary day to day things. The difference being, of course, that Hunter-Barry was usually right when he thought something was wrong.

And yeah, he did wake up screaming at night from time to time. There were nights when he was overcome with the suffocating feeling of vulnerability. But Hunter-Barry didn't tell him that there was nothing to be afraid of, instead he started barricading the doors and windows with hotel furniture and drawing protection symbols on the walls in invisible ink. Somehow that made everything better.

Warlock-Barry didn't think his life changed drastically. He still spent most of his days pouring over ancient grimoires (pronounced 'grim-whar' he'd explained to Coffee-Barry when he'd tried to read the name off the cover). He still mixed potions and scolded his familiar for sleeping inside of his cauldrons when he wasn't using them because _yes_ Maverick, cat hair _can_ completely ruin a potion. The main difference was that, perhaps for the first time in his life, he had a friend. A _human_ friend. One who asked questions like 'so what does that do' and 'is that cauldron downstairs supposed to be billowing purple smoke'? As opposed to Maverick who wore a near constant look of disinterest and simply asked which work space was safe to take a nap on. Something about the whole situation made him feel a little less guilty about the fact that it had been his spell that had screwed up and dragged both himself and all of the others into a wormhole leading to Earth-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoooooo, I finally got around to finishing this piece of crap! Really sorry if I missed any mistakes or if any of the paragraphs seemed a little rough around the edges. What with having about three essays due in the last few weeks before the end of school and then going on holiday, I didn’t get much writing done so these were mostly written individual and then stuck together with a whole lot of duct tape. Also, I realized something when I was finishing this off: I missed hybrid-Barry!  
> So, because I’m kind of a sucker for hybrid fics, I would perhaps be willing to write a standalone chapter in which a hybrid-Barry makes an appearance. Maybe I’ll just make it so that hybrids are a normal occurrence on Earth-2? Maybe Zoom will send him to kill Earth-1 Barry? I don’t know. Only if you guys want it, it’s cool if you’re getting sick of these multiple-Barry fics that I keep writing for some reason. :/  
> If you guys DO WANT A HYBRID FIC then please reply with the following suggestions:  
> a) Since it’s one on one should I give him a different name? Could just be a nickname or middle name that they use to avoid confusion.  
> b) What kind of hybrid should he be? Cat comes to mind but if you want something else or want a specific species of cat (e.g. Bengal cat) then let me know.  
> c) When in the season should he appear? I would be more than willing to write him into a specific episode.  
> d) Any additional things you’d like to see specific likes scenes (e.g. hybrid-Barry winds up going to work as a CSI in Earth-1 Barry’s place because he was injured as the Flash) or people you’d like him to meet (e.g. members of Team Arrow, one of the Rogues, Iris, Joe etc.) or a combination of the two: specific scenes you’d like to see between hybrid-Barry and characters (e.g. cat hybrid-Barry is fascinated by Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall because duh, bird people). Obviously this will also depend on what episode I’m writing him into.  
> And no I have not already gotten super into this idea and given it loads of thought what are you talking about???

**Author's Note:**

> Earth Three: Thief-Barry  
> Earth Four: Assassin-Barry  
> Earth Five: Vampire-Barry  
> Earth Six: Cop-Barry  
> Earth Seven: Pirate-Barry  
> Earth Eight: Prison-Barry  
> Earth Nine: Crazy-Barry  
> Earth Ten: Demon-Barry  
> Earth Eleven: Coffee-Barry  
> Earth Twelve: Hunter-Barry  
> Earth Thirteen: Survivor-Barry  
> Earth Fourteen: Warlock-Barry  
> Earth Fifteen: Ghost-Barry
> 
> There you go guys! I will be writing an epilogue containing the details of what happens to each of the Barrys when they return home and I MIGHT at some point throw in a few bonus chapters about what they get up to in those last few days on Earth 1. MAYBE, no promises. Also I apologise for any and all mistakes I may have made. I read it over, edited the crap out of it and wrote in an ending but I'm tired and I've no doubt overlooked a bunch of them.
> 
> And I think that’s it! I hope you all enjoyed.


End file.
